Free Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11) by Mallory Monroe Page B

cascade down, grabbed the towel off of the rack, and then hurried for
the nightstand in her bedroom.   But by the
time she grabbed   her cell phone off of
the stand, the call had ended.   She
checked the Caller ID.   It was Jimmy.   Undoubtedly checking up on her again.   She tossed the phone back onto her nightstand
and sat naked on her bed, the big white towel still in her hands.
    She
didn’t know why she felt such animosity toward her own husband.   He didn’t do it.   He didn’t cause her to lose their baby.   If anything, he was overly helpful.   He did everything right.   But she just felt such hostility whenever she
was around him!   She just felt such a
sense of failure and anger.   Trina was
much older than she was when she first got pregnant, and she had two beautiful
babies for Reno.   And Grace was older
too, and she just had a healthy baby girl for Jimmy’s Uncle Tommy.   Val couldn’t help it, but she felt as if she
was the only one who failed.   She was the
only one of the Gabrini women who let a Gabrini man down.   And it was driving her nuts.
    And
not only that.   It was the way they
treated her now, and the way they looked at her.   Oh,
poor Val , their faces seemed to say.   Look at poor Val!  
    But
she didn’t want to be poor Val.   She
didn’t want to be the weak link in the Gabrini chain.   They didn’t like weak women.   They frowned upon weakness.   And here she was, not measuring up.
    She
laid back on her bed.   Maybe that was the
worst of it for her.   The idea that she
wasn’t living up to other people’s expectations.   Before she married Jimmy, she was very
independent and self-possessed and very comfortable in her own skin.   She knew who she was, where she was going,
and how she was going to get there.   But
that miscarriage seemed to bring out into the open what had been hidden, but
was festering all along: she wasn’t good enough to be a Gabrini.  
    Jimmy
all but told her so many times before.   Whenever they were all together, and she always felt like the odd girl
out.   He would tell her that it took time
to become a Gabrini.   He would tell her
that she was a special person, but she had years to go before she could try to
put herself on the same level as Trina and Gemma Jones.   Be herself, he would tell her.   Don’t try to be like them.   And she used to agree with him.   She wasn’t there yet and he was giving her
good advice.   But after her misfortune,
after that awful miscarriage, it no longer felt like sage advice.   It felt like criticism.  
    The
doorbell suddenly rang.   Val sat up
quickly and looked at the clock on her nightstand.   She knew she was moving slow, but it was a
full two hours before their guests were expected.   She hurried to the bedroom window and looked
out.   When she saw that Porsche in front
of her house, and saw only one person at her front door, she actually smiled.   He had apparently decided to come early.   Two full hours early.   And it somehow felt like fate to Val.   It somehow felt perfect.
    She
still had dreams about that man.   They
used to feel innocent to her.   But after
that miscarriage, and after Jimmy’s inability to fulfill her, they suddenly
didn’t seem so innocent any longer.   She
had a thing for Reno Gabrini.   Jimmy once
told her so himself, but she denied it to his face.   Now she was no longer in denial.  
    It
was reckless, it was wrong, it was careless in the extreme.   But even all of those reasons not to do it,
couldn’t overcome the only reason she had to give it a whirl: her unyielding
desire to see what it felt like to know Reno Gabrini.
    She
wrapped the towel around her naked body, and hurried downstairs.

 
    Reno
rang the bell again, and then again before Val finally opened the door.   Reno was shocked when she opened the door.
    “Oh,
Mr. Gabrini!” she said as if her shock trumped his.   She stepped behind the door.   “Come on in,” she